Fauquier County Tapscotts - Virginia Martin

Virginia A. Martin, Maria Ann Tapscott Martin's second offspring, was born c1853 and had two children, James W. Martin and William Martin, prior to her known relationship with Thomas Russell. Both children were born around 1868 and were likely twins. The father may have had the surname “Hord” since James appears, with his stepfather, Thomas Russell, in the 1880 census with the name “James W. Hora.” “Hora” is a rather unusual name and may be a miswriting of “Hord.” Several persons with the surname “Hord” were living in Fauquier County at the time, including some in the Southwest Revenue Distr, where Virginia was living in 1860. In fact, an Enos Hord had been the surety for a bond for the marriage of Virginia’s great aunt Catherine Tapscott and Virginia’s uncle Alexander Martin. William Martin is not seen after 1870 and James W. Martin/Hora is not seen after 1880.

By 1873, when their first child was born, Virginia was living with Thomas Russell, brother of Mark Russell, who had married Virginia’s cousin once removed Mary Frances Tapscott. The couple had three known children: Agnes A. (b c1873), Mattie R. (b c1875), and Minerva (b c1877). The last child, Minerva is seen in a single record.

The relationship with Thomas did not last. In 1900 we find Virginia, living separately from Thomas and under her birth name “Martin,” caring for her “daughter,” Anna B. Martin. The “daughter,” was actually Virginia’s granddaughter Anna Belle Chandler, the only known child of Agnes Russell, who had married John Franklin Chandler in Fauquier County on 15 Nov 1888. It appears that both Agnes and John had died between the birth of their child Anna in 1892 and 1900, when their daughter was being cared for by Virginia.

In 1900 we find Thomas Russell living with a new wife, Polly Russell, and a new family of five children, four of them his. Born around 1847 (his death certificate claims 1852), Thomas passed away on 20 Oct 1915, and was buried in Poplar Forks Baptist Church Cemetery. His second wife, Polly Pinn, born in 1872, lived until 13 Jan 1951 and was buried in Warrenton Cemetery.

Of her five known children, Virginia had a single child, Mattie, known to have lived past early adulthood. Mattie, who had multiple and intensely confusing relationships, passed away on 1 Nov 1954 in Warrenton, Virginia.

Virginia had one more relationship. In the 1900 census she is shown with the surname “Martin,” but the 1910 census shows Virginia as a widow with the surname “Baker.” It appears that between 1900 and 1910, Virginia had married, and then her new mate had died. When Virginia died on 16 Jan 1929 in Fauquier County, her death certificate showed her as widowed with Andrew Baker as her husband. Her husband had likely been the Andrew Baker who was born in Fauquier County c1856 to Charles and Isabella Baker and who on 22 Nov 1877 had married Mildred Grigsby. Andrew and Mildred had apparently separated prior to Andrew's union with Virginia since Mildred is found in 1910 with a new husband, Charles Coram, to whom she was married c1896. Mildred died 25 Sep 1918 in Warrenton.

 

Fauquier County Tapscotts - Jane Elizabeth Martin

We are still researching Maria Tapscott, Harriet Tapscott’s older daughter. We hear a lot about Harriet's second daughter, Cordelia, but in fact, Maria and her children had much more interesting (but calamitous) lives.

Maria’s first-born child, is seen with just the name “Jane E.” in the 1850 and 1860 censuses, but we know that Jane’s middle name was “Elizabeth,” because that was the only name she used the rest of her life. Jane Elizabeth’s tale must start with Charles Ridgely McBlair, who would one day be involved in the death of Elizabeth's stepfather, Albert Martin.

Following the war, Charles McBlair moved from Maryland to Fauquier County, where he rented a sawmill from Thomas T. Chichester (brother of William Doddridge Chichester). There, he hired Alfred Martin to work for him in the sawmill and there, according to the Baltimore Sun newspaper, he married Alfred’s “stepdaughter” (no name given). At the time, around 1870, Alfred had only two stepdaughters of a marriageable age, both from his wife Maria’s marriage to John F. Martin—Jane E. and Virginia A. But in the 1870s, Virginia was involved in another relationship (with Thomas Russell), so it had to be Jane that Charles married. Charles McBlair and Elizabeth Martin (as she was designated in all records after the 1860 census) had four known children—Anna Elizabeth McBlair (22 Jun 1870–15 Sep 1930), Charles McBlair Jr. (c1870–15 Apr 1873), Robert McBlair (1 May 1873–16 Nov 1873), and Ridgely (“Richard”) McDonald McBlair (4 Feb 1875–21 Mar 1933).

Jane Elizabeth's husband, Charles, went downhill in Fauquier County. According to the Baltimore Sun,

His life here has been wild and reckless, though it was supposed his indiscretions proceeded rather from the head than the heart, and would not go beyond a participation in drunken brawls, in which he often became involved when intoxicated.

Then, in a catastrophic year, 1873, two of Charles’s children died (Charles Jr. and Robert) and Charles was tried for the murder of his wife’s stepfather. Though he was cleared of murder, things continued to slide. And then on 17 Oct 1878, near Williamsburg, Virginia, he was killed by a gunshot during a quarrel. According to a newspaper article about the shooting,

The deceased was highly connected in the State of Maryland. Since he has resided in Virginia he has been in very poor circumstances, and obtained a precarious sort of living by hunting and fishing. He leaves a wife and two children.

The two children were Anna and Ridgely (“Richard”).

Now a widow from a highly questionable marriage, Jane Elizabeth McBlair parked her daughter Anna with Anna’s McBlair grandparents, Charles Henry and Frances ("Fanny") McBlair, in the District of Columbia, and dropped out of sight for a while, presumably with her young son Ridgley (“Richard”). Then, on 12 Jan 1882 in Prince William Co, Virginia, Elizabeth McBlair married S. B. Byrne. S. B. was Shinar Bertrand, son of Thomas W. and Catharine A. (Thomas) Byrne. In 1860 Elizabeth and Shinar had both lived in the Southwest Revenue District in Fauquier County, where their fathers were wheelwrights. Elizabeth had probably known Shinar well before she ever met her future husband, Charles Ridgely. The last record we see for either Elizabeth or Shinar is their marriage record. Their fates are unknown.

Elizabeth’s daughter, Anna Elizabeth, married Samuel Walker on 26 Oct 1892 in Alexandria, Virginia. There they lived out their lives, Anna dying on 15 Sep 1930 and Samuel on 25 Oct 1949. They are buried in adjacent graves in Bethel Cemetery in Alexandria.

Ridgely (“Richard”) McDonald McBlair

On 17 Feb 1909 in DC, Ridgely McDonald, Jane Elizabeth’s last born, who always went by “Richard,” married Alvenia (“Alice”) Martin, who was both his first cousin through her father, John Robert Martin, and his second cousin through her mother. Elizabeth Tapscott. Richard passed away 21 Mar 1933 and Alvenia on 7 Apr 1953. Like the Walkers, they were also laid to rest in Bethel Cemetery.

Confused by all these relationships? Below is a chart of the whole works, with McBlair, Tapscott, and Martin connections as they relate to Jane Elizabeth Martin. Caution! Lots of people are omitted. These are by no means entire families.

Some Tapscott, McBlair, Martin connections, with many omissions.

Are you descended from Jane Elizabeth Martin? Have I made any errors in her history? Have I left something out? Do you have any family history stories about her or her descendants? In particular, do you know anything about what became of Jane Elizabeth or her second husband, Shinar?

Fauquier County Tapscotts - The McBlairs

It has been noted that Maria Ann Tapscott's second marriage, to Alfred Martin, was short, for tragic reasons. Now we are going to see what those tragic reasons were.

In the late evening on a rainy 20 Aug 1873, Alfred was returning from the Fauquier County town of Melrose Station, renamed “Cassanova” a few years later, where he and a most unusual companion had been boozing it up. We say unusual, because his drinking companion was Charles Ridgley McBlair, a member of a prestigious and wealthy family. The story of what occurred, which appeared in numerous newspapers at the time, and what led up to it is worthy of a book in itself. A major synopsis, though still incomplete and a little doubtful in places, is found in the 8 Sep 1878 Baltimore Sun.

On that 20 Aug 1873 evening, after traveling about a mile in their wagon, McBlair attempted to fire his revolver, which had become wet by the rain. He tried five times, without success. Then he placed it to his head and fired twice, again without it discharging. Seeing this, Alfred swore that he would do the same, and taking the pistol from Charles, he pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger. The pistol went off and Alfred was killed instantly.

Alfred was killed by Charles McBlair’s revolver and Charles was the only living witness. So, even though McBlair informed others of Alfred’s death, assisted in removing the body, and testified about the accident before a coroner, he was jailed for trial.

Michael McBlair (Ancestry.com).

The father of the suspected murderer was Charles Henry McBlair, a son of Michael and Pleasance Goodwin McBlair. Michael, who had emigrated from Ireland in 1789, had made it big in Baltimore business and society. He had been such a success that a collection of approximately 3000 items associated with him, primarily letters, are maintained by the Maryland Center for History and Culture. Much of the information given here comes from those papers. Three of Michael’s sons, Charles Henry, John Hollins, and William, held high-ranking positions in the U.S. Navy. But in 1861, two of those sons, Charles and William, resigned from U.S. Navy to join the Confederate States Navy, where they were ships commanders, though William died before war’s end. Charles Henry McBlair saw to it that his son Charles Ridgley, though only in his late teens during the war, was made Acting Master’s Mate in both the Confederate Navy and Confederate Army.

One of the three brothers, John Hollins McBlair, stayed with the Union, serving as a major during the war. And John Hollins had a son that he also named “Charles Ridgely McBlair,” something that causes no end of confusion, particularly since the two Charles Ridgelys were born just a year or so apart.

Gov. Charles Carnan Ridgely 1820

Capt. Charles Ridgely

"Ridgely" was a family name. Pleasance Goodwin's grandmother was Pleasance Ridgely. The prominent Ridgely family of Maryland included a Maryland governor, Charles Carnan Ridgely (Pleasance Goodwin's cousin), and multiple industrialists. Another member of the family was Capt. Charles Ridgely, an adventurous ship's captain (quelled a mutiny, survived two hurricanes, imprisoned by the French during French and Indian war) and a wealthy landowner (twenty-four thousand acres).

Despite his role in the rebellion, after the War, Charles Henry McBlair became Adjutant General of Maryland, a position he held from 1871 to 1874, and a position he held when he attended his son’s trial in Warrenton, Virginia. On 12 Sep 1873 a circuit court jury in Warrenton declared Charles innocent of murdering Alfred.

Why have we presented so much about the McBlair family? Because a McBlair married into Maria Tapscott’s family. Who that McBlair was will be revealed in our next blog. Some of you Fauquier County Tapscotts have illustrious McBlair and Ridgely ancestors. But any pride must be accompanied by dishonor, for that means you also have Confederate rebels in your family tree.

Fauquier County Tapscotts – the Martins

“Martin” is a common name among Fauquier County Tapscott ancestors, and many of these Martins were descendants of Maria Ann Tapscott, who married John Martin and then Alfred Martin. Others were descendants of Catherine Tapscott and Alexander Martin. And who were John, Alfred, and Alexander? Here we answer that, but the story is long, complicated, and, to many, boring. You are forewarned.

John, Alfred, and Alexander were likely brothers. We know a lot more about Alfred than about the other two. The record of Alfred’s marriage with Maria shows his parents to have been John and Peggy Martin. In Fauquier County on 15 Aug 1803, Peggy Elliott, daughter of Samuel, had married John Martin (the Elder).

Samuel Elliott had fought in the Revolutionary War, so you Martin descendants are eligible for DAR or SAR membership. And your ancestor, Samuel, had a meritorious service record. According to his pension file, he first served as a Minute Man and had then enlisted in the Continental Army in Fauquier County on 20 Aug 1776, serving as a private in Capt. William Blackwell's company, Col Daniel Morgan’s 11th Virginia regiment. He had been wounded in the Battle of Brandywine, being struck on the left breast by a ball. Then Samuel fought in the battles of Germantown and Monmouth, was at the Siege of Yorktown, and was at the surrender of Cornwallis in 1781. His pension file contains a massive amount of data for the family, listing all his children, including Peggy (“Margaret”), with their birthdates.

In the 1850 census for Turner’s District in Fauquier County we find a 30-year-old Alfred Martin living in a household headed by a Henry Allen and his wife, Harriet. Harriet was Harriet S. Martin (b c1832), who had married Henry Allen in Fauquier County 26 Dec 1848, and was Alfred’s sister. Two others in this 1850 household were Milly Martin (b c1804) and James Martin (b c1834), also likely to be Alfred’s siblings (or, in the case of Milly, possibly a sister-in-law). But there is one other person in the household, whose relationship is uncertain, 50-year-old Margaret Martin. Margaret appears to be too old to be a sister of Alfred, but too young to be his widowed mother.

In fact, we know that this Margaret is not Alfred’s mother, because his mother is found elsewhere in the Fauquier County census for 1850. Shown in that census is Henry C. Martin and his wife, Elizabeth Ash, who were married in Fauquier County on 20 Dec 1827, and living with them is 74-year-old Margaret Martin. In Samuel Elliott’s pension file, a record dated 1837 describes Margaret as the “widow Martin.” That and other data indicate that John (the Elder) had died around 1835. We know that the Margaret Martin living with the Henry C. Martin family is very likely Margaret (Elliott) Martin, because Henry C. Martin, presumably her son, provided an affidavit about the family for an 1837 application by Samuel’s widow, Winifred (Lee) Martin for a pension based on Samuel’s service.

Living  next door to Henry and Harriet Allen in 1850 was a Thomas Martin (b c1810), his wife Jane (b c1811), and their inferred son William C. Thomas is another very likely family member, probably the Thomas Martin who provided surety for the bond for Maria Tapscott’s first marriage. And living just two dwellings away from Henry and Harriet Allen’s household in the 1850 census was Alexander Martin, who had married Catherine Tapscott. Alexander is another candidate for being a son of John and Margaret (Elliott) Martin. More on Alexander and Catherine will be provided in a future blog.

In the 1860 census, the elder Margaret Martin is not to be found and has presumably died, but the younger Margaret Martin, now with an age given as 65 (b c1895) is found living in Fauquier County with her possible siblings (or siblings-in-law?), James D. Martin and Harriet S. Martin. Harriet’s marriage had apparently broken up since Henry Allen is seen living elsewhere in Fauquier County and Harriet has taken back her birth name. But she is left with a child, James Martin (b c1857). And guess who is living next door to Margaret and her two offspring 1860—John and Maria (Tapscott) Martin. That, and the fact that Alfred would one day marry John’s widow, makes it highly likely that John was, like Alfred, a child of Margaret (“Peggy”) and John (the Elder) Martin.

 

What a mess. But perhaps this chart provides some clarification.

Anything you disagree with? Anything you can add? Please comment or email me to let me know.

Fauquier County Tapscotts - Maria

Harriet had two children—Maria Ann Tapscott, the first born, and Cordelia Tapscott. A third child, John, is sometimes claimed. But John, who appears in an 1860 Fauquier County census with Harriett and Cordelia, was Cordelia’s partner rather than her brother. We will hear more about Cordelia and John in the future. But in this and the next few blogs, we will be looking at Maria and her relatives, an exceedingly complex group of people. Indeed, one could write a single book about Maria and her connections.

Records for both her first and second marriages, show Maria Ann Tapscott, born c1832 according to a weighted average of census data, to be a child of Harriet, but no father is recorded. With a complete absence of evidence, an Eli Penn (also “Pinn”) Tapscott is often claimed to be the father of Maria, and sometimes of her sister, Cordelia. There was an Eli Pinn that lived in Fauquier County at the time and whose sister, Amanda, married Harriet’s half-brother William Tapscott (more on all that later). But that Eli Pinn was born c1823 and would have been a young child when Maria and Harriet were born. No other Eli Penn/Pinn or Eli Tapscott is found in Fauquier County records. We have no evidence of who fathered Maria.

On 6 Apr 1848 in Fauquier County, Maria married John F. Martin. John had been born in Virginia around 1824. A Thomas Martin was a surety for the marriage bond. John and Maria lived out their married life in Fauquier County, where John was first a laborer and then a wheelwright, and where the couple had six known children—Jane E., Virginia A., John Robert. James Henry, Jefferson D., and Louisa.

John Martin died c1863. He is seen in the 1860 census, but when Maria married a second time, to Alfred C. Martin in Fauquier County on 12 Jan 1867, the record showed that she was a widow.

Maria’s second marriage was short, for tragic reasons we shall soon see, but it did result in a child, Carrie. We last see Maria living as a widow 1880 in Cedar Run District with Carrie and the two youngest children from Maria’s first marriage, Jefferson and Louisa.

Eventually we will look at each of Maria’s children, but our next blog is on the ancestry of Maria's husbands. Be prepared to be bored with lots of data and lots of confusing connections.

Fauquier County Tapscotts – Harriet

Harriet Tapscott

We have already taken a detailed look at Harriet, the apparent daughter of James and Elizabeth (Harriet and Harriott). But note that I use the adjective “apparent.” We need to examine Harriet further. But I warn you. This is exceedingly complicated and rather boring.

Harriet was listed as “m” (“mulatto”) in the 1860 census and as “W” (White) in the 1870 census. No race was given for her in the 1850 census. When she died on 12 Aug 1871, her death record listed her as “Colored.” All this is puzzling since Elizabeth and James were both White, at least as far as we can tell. Perhaps Harriet’s race was inaccurately concluded based on the race of her children, but might there have been other reasons? Could her parentage be different than what we believe?

In Harriet’s death register, Cordelia Tapscott, the informant, is named as Harriet’s mother, an obvious error. Or is it? Could another Cordelia have been an unknown consort of James and might Harriet have named one of her daughters after her mother? That would explain a lot. Nevertheless, the only Cordelia Tapscott living at the time, of which we are aware, was the child of Harriet. (Two Cordelia Tapscotts born c1785 and c1814 and shown in a small number of online trees are easily proven fictional.) At this point we need to continue our earlier look at DNA.

The following table contains summaries of selected autosomal DNA matches for three people shown by paper studies to be descendants of Harriet. For reasons of privacy, I am not naming these individuals, who are the only Harriet descendants whose DNA test results I have access to. (Thank you, One, Two, and Three.) Descendant One is believed to be a descendant of only Harriet’s daughter Maria. Descendant Two is a descendant of both of Harriet’s daughters, Maria and Cordelia, by two different lines. And Descendant Three is a descendant of Cordelia, but also of Harriet’s half-brother, Edmond, a child of Elizabeth Percifull by an unknown suitor. It would, of course, be better for DNA interpretation to avoid a person with two entirely different connections to Elizabeth, but one must use what one can get.

The table shows DNA matches between the three descendants of Harriet with three different groups of people. The first group consists of descendants of Henry the Immigrant through lines believed to not involve James, son of Ezekiel Tapscott. The second is people believed to be descendants of Elijah Percifull by routes that involve no Fauquier County Tapscotts. And the third group is Fauquier County descendants of Elizabeth, but not of Harriet. Shown are the number of matches and the average shared DNA. The larger the centimorgan (cM) number, the closer the relationship.

I must admit that the data are questionable because analyses of the matches are based to a large extent on what others have entered into their trees. Nevertheless, the DNA results in the table provide excellent evidence that Harriet was a child of James. The three individuals tested show a total of 19 matches with descendants of Henry the Immigrant, with a particularly large number (nine) for Edney Tapscott, grandfather of Harriet’s father, James. This is very good evidence that James E. Tapscott was Harriet’s father.

On the other hand, at first glance, the data provide only fair evidence that Harriet was a daughter of Elizabeth. There are matches to Percifull descendants, through both Fauquier Tapscott and non-Fauquier lines. Although this is what we would expect if Harriet’s mother was Elizabeth, the evidence is shaky for two reasons. First, one would expect a greater number of matches.  Second, a small, somewhat isolated, community, such as Cedar Grove and Turner's District in Fauquier Co, could result in endogamy or something similar. Multiple relationships might cause Percifull matches resulting from hidden connections, and this would decrease the already small number of meaningful Percifull matches.

But additional data strengthen the conclusion that Harriet was a daughter of Elizabeth. We start with a member of the Holder line, a descendant of Robert Francis Tapscott, believed to be a child of Elizabeth Percifull and a person with the surname “Holder.” That member of the Holder line has, as far as we know, no connections with other Fauquier County Tapscotts than via Elizabeth. The Holder descendant, who has granted me permission to review DNA results, has four matches with people who are descendants of Harriet, but who have no other known connection with Elizabeth. Three of these matches involve lines through both Maria and Cordilla, but one involves only a single line through Cordelia to Harriet, for which there is a match of 9 cM. The Holder descendant is separated from Elizabeth by 5 steps, and the Cordelia descendant, by 6 steps. Thus, there are 13 degrees of separation between the two people descended from their most recent common ancestor, Elizabeth. The Holder and Harriet descendants are fifth cousins once removed. For 13 degrees of separation, we would expect the shared DNA to be 6.64 cM, which is remarkably close to the 9 cM actually observed, considering that the expected range is probably around 0 to 15 cM. Is this proof that Cordelia’s grandmother and Harriet’s mother was Elizabeth Perciful? No. There are too many things that could be wrong, particularly unknown multiple relationships. But it is strong evidence.

The other three matches of the Holder Descendant with individuals believed to be descended from Harriet through both Maria and Cordelia show shared DNA of 39 cM, 35 cM, and 36 cM; however, it is difficult to calculate how much shared DNA is expected when there are multiple relationships. It is admitted, however, that these numbers appear to be higher than expected, which would perhaps be around 13 cM, and that hints of unknown relationship paths.

At this point we are going to say that DNA evidence provides good evidence that Maria and Cordelia were, indeed, children of Harriet and grandchildren of James Tapscott and Elizabeth Perciful. But we would like more data than what are now available.

Are you a Fauquier County Tapscott (i.e., a descendant of Elizabeth Percifull, with or without the name “Tapscott”)? Do you have DNA results (autosomal, mitochondrial, or yDNA) you could share? Sharing would certainly help our Fauquier County Tapscott research, and your identity will not be divulged. If you have DNA test data on or transferrable to FamilyTreeDNA, I encourage you to join the Tapscott Project. If you have DNA data on Ancestry or MyHeritage, please consider sharing them with me (see Ancestry Sharing or MyHeritage Collaboration). (And, of course, I would be quite willing to share my results with you in return, though you would probably find them rather uninformative.) If you have DNA data on GEDmatch, I encourage you to give me your kit number (again, I will do the same for you, if requested). And, finally, I urge males, particularly those with the name "Tapscott," to take a yDNA test and females to take a mitochondrial DNA test. Both tests are available at FamilyTreeDNA though, I admit, they are a rather pricey. (No, I do not get a cut.) To discuss using your DNA test results in research, email me (address below) or leave a comment on this post. Thanks for your help, cousins.

Fauquier County Tapscotts - James and Elizabeth

In our previous blog, we looked at the origins of James E. Tapscott, the progenitor of the genetic Tapscott line of the Fauquier County Tapscotts. Now we need to link him with Elizabeth Percifull, the mother of all the Fauquier Tapscott lines.

When James E. was growing up in Lancaster Co, Virginia, also living there were the Percifulls, who were well acquainted with James’s family. On 17 Apr 1783 Elijah Percifull had secured a bond for the marriage of Susanna Tapscott, Ezekiel’s sister and James’s aunt. And around 1790, Elijah was made the executor of the estate of Joseph Dobbs, who had married Mary Schofield, future sister-in-law of Ezekiel Tapscott’s daughter Polly. Thus, it was inevitable that James Tapscott and Elijah’s daughter Elizabeth, who were about the same age, would meet. And meet they did, for on 20 Dec 1811 in Fauquier County James E. Tapscott obtained a bond to wed Elizabeth “Pearciful,” daughter of Elijah.

It is likely that James and Elizabeth traveled to Fauquier for their marriage to avoid Elizabeth’s father, Elijah, who not only disapproved of his daughter, but also had a poor opinion of James. This can be seen in Elijah's will. The will gives the full names of the husbands of Elijah's three other married daughters:

Judith who intermarried with Thomas Potts . . . Daughter Ruth who into married with William Sims . . . Nancy who intor married with Gideon Marsh

But Elizabeth was listed as

Daughter Betsey who into married with Tapscott

It was almost like Elijah didn’t know James’s name. But of course, he did. And Elijah didn’t want James to get his hands on Elizabeth’s inheritance, what little she got. So, his will states:

there is seven pounds ten Shillings to be Reducted out of my Daughter Betsey proportion for money I paid for her and the balance of her proportion to be in money and paid to her yearly as five pounds a year so long as it will last and the said Tapscott to have no power of the same and if she dies before it is gone the same to Return to the estate

The money Elijah had "paid for her" was Elizabeth's fine for bearing "two bastard children" with Richard Cundiff.

So, at the beginning of 1812, James was on his own in Fauquier County, far from home with a wife and likely a child (Telem) to support. Any inheritance he may have gotten from his father, who died over a decade earlier, had probably been used by James’s guardians for his support. And with a disapproving father, Elizabeth would certainly not be bringing money into the family. All this may explain why on 25 May 1812, less than a month before the start of the War of 1812 and just five months after he had obtained a bond to marry Elizabeth, James enlisted in the U.S. Army for a five-year term. Unlike the militia, the regular Army provided a dependable, though meagre, income.

At the time, the standing U.S. Army was small. When President James Madison and the U.S. Congress declared war with Britain on 18 Jun 1812, the army numbered less than 7000. Most of the War of 1812 was conducted by states’ militias. By war’s end, militias totaled about 470,000 men (in those days, they were all men), while the Army had expanded to just 60,000. Two other James Tapscotts served in the War of 1812, both in the Virginia Militia–James W., the son of Chichester and Betsy Ann Williams Tapscott, and James Jr., son of James Sr. and Elizabeth Davis Tapscott. Both were grandchildren of Capt. Henry Tapscott, brother of Edney, and both were second cousins of James E. Tapscott of Fauquier County. Curious about these other James Tapscotts? Get a copy of Henry the Immigrant, The First Tapscotts of Virginia and look them up.

A bounty land warrant states that James served as a private in the 5th Regiment of Infantry, which was not formed until 3 Mar 1815, after the war’s end. He is also said to have served in the Corps of Artillery, which was formed in May 1814. During his military stint, James likely served in several units.

James died in service, though not in battle or even during the war. His service in the 5th Regiment had to be after the war. James may have died a long ways from home. In 1816, the 5th U.S. Infantry Regiment was stationed in the Upper Midwest of the United States. And he died young, no older than 27. He was deceased by 23 June 1817, when Elizabeth posted a bond in Fauquier County for guardianship of their daughter. He was also shown as deceased when a bounty land warrant was issued in 2 Jul (or 9 Jul, two dates are given) 1817. His death likely occurred in 1816 or 1817.

It was now Elizabeth who was on her own, with soon three kids to support—Telem, Harriet, and Robert Francis. And who was Robert Francis? Wait and see.